Wireless sensor node for surface seawater density measurements.

An electronic meter to measure surface seawater density is presented. It is based on the measurement of the difference in displacements of a surface level probe and a weighted float, which according to Archimedes' law depends on the density of the water. The displacements are simultaneously measured using a high-accuracy magnetostrictive sensor, to which a custom electronic board provides a wireless connection and power supply so that it can become part of a wireless sensor network.

Frequency and determinants of using pharmacological enhancement in the clinical practice of in-hospital stroke rehabilitation.

Background: Pharmacological enhancement in stroke rehabilitation (PESR) is promising. Data about its use in clinical practice are missing.

Methods: In a prospective, explorative study of four rehabilitation centers, we systematically observed the frequency and determinants of using PESR in consecutive patients.

Short and valid assessment of apraxia in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Valid assessment of apraxia in usually non-apraxic Parkinson's disease helps to delineate atypical parkinsonism frequently associated with apraxia. Furthermore, in a subgroup of late Parkinson's disease apraxia, typically the ideomotor subtype, may gradually superimpose onto parkinsonian motor symptoms contributing to defective manual skill. Here we evaluate the utility of a brief, standardized test, the apraxia screen of TULIA (AST).

Impaired finger dexterity in Parkinson's disease is associated with praxis function.

A controversial concept suggests that impaired finger dexterity in Parkinson's disease may be related to limb kinetic apraxia that is not explained by elemental motor deficits such as bradykinesia. To explore the nature of dexterous difficulties, the aim of the present study was to assess the relationship of finger dexterity with ideomotor praxis function and parkinsonian symptoms. Twenty-five patients with Parkinson's disease participated in the study.

Raman-based distributed temperature sensor with 1 m spatial resolution over 26 km SMF using low-repetition-rate cyclic pulse coding.

We experimentally investigate the benefits of a new optical pulse coding technique for long-range, meter and submeter scale Raman-based distributed temperature sensing on standard single-mode optical fibers. The proposed scheme combines a low-repetition-rate quasi-periodic pulse coding technique with the use of standard high-power fiber lasers operating at 1550 nm, allowing for what we believe is the first long-range distributed temperature measurement over single-mode fibers (SMFs). We have achieved 1 m spatial resolution over 26 km of SMF, attaining 3°C temperature resolution within 30 s measurement time.

A new bedside test of gestures in stroke: the apraxia screen of TULIA (AST).

Background: Apraxia in patients with stroke may be overlooked, as clumsiness and deficient gestural communication are often attributed to frequently coexisting sensorimotor deficits and aphasia. Early and reliable detection of apraxia by a bedside test is relevant for functional outcome in patients with stroke. The present study was aimed at constructing a new bedside screening test for apraxia, called the Apraxia Screen of TULIA (AST), based on the comprehensive standardised Test for Upper-Limb Apraxia (TULIA).

Poor dopaminergic response of impaired dexterity in Parkinson's disease: Bradykinesia or limb kinetic apraxia?

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) often show impaired manual dexterity even when being only minimally bradykinetic, suggesting that they may have limb kinetic apraxia (LKA), that is, a loss of fine motor skill not explained by elemental motor deficits. To explore this dissociation, we investigated the differential dopaminergic responsiveness of dexterity and bradykinesia in PD. Twelve patients with PD (4 women, age 64.

[Rehabilitation of parkinsonian patients].

Although most parkinsonian patients greatly benefit from medical and/or surgical treatment, their clinical management should not be limited to these two interventions. Axial symptoms, freezing, postural instability, speech and swallowing problems may be drug-resistant, and disability may persist in spite of improvement of motor symptoms. A coordinate interdisciplinary approach facilitates the clinical management of the disease.

Can quality of movement be measured? Rasch analysis and inter-rater reliability of the Motor Evaluation Scale for Upper Extremity in Stroke Patients (MESUPES).

Objective: Clinical scales evaluating arm function after stroke are weak at detecting quality of movement. Therefore a new scale, the Motor Evaluation Scale for Upper Extremity in Stroke Patients (MESUPES), was developed, comprising 22 items pertaining to arm and hand performance. The scale was investigated for validity and unidimensionality using the Rasch measurement model, and for inter-rater reliability.

Can individual repair kinetics of UVC-induced DNA damage in human lymphocytes be assessed through the comet assay?

The suitability of the comet assay for quantifying DNA repair capacity at individual level was studied following the kinetics of nucleotide excision repair (NER) in human lymphocytes from four healthy donors, at various time steps after a single dose of UVC. A significant increase of DNA migration was seen as soon as 20 min after UV exposure, reaching the peak within 60-90 min. Afterwards, a rapid decline was observed, approaching the basal level at 180-240 min.

[Psychological and cognitive problems in Parkinson disease--therapeutic possibilities].

Depression, hallucinations, psychosis and cognitive deficits may often complicate advanced Parkinson's disease. Their detection and treatment have extraordinary importance, as they may cause significant invalidity and even an increase in mortality. Optimization of antiparkinsonian therapy may exert a positive influence on depressive symptoms, and should therefore be performed before antidepressant drugs are started.

No evidence for altered muscle mitochondrial function in Parkinson's disease.

Recent reports indicate that reductions in mitochondrial respiratory chain function occur in substantia nigra, platelets, and muscle from patients with Parkinson's disease. To confirm and further characterise the presence of a generally distributed mitochondrial defect, mitochondrial metabolism was evaluated in muscle obtained from subjects with Parkinson's disease and from normal controls. Oxygen consumption rates in muscle mitochondria represented by complex I, complexes II-III, or complex IV did not differ between the two groups.

Continuous lisuride effects on central dopaminergic mechanisms in Parkinson's disease.

Effects of the long term, continuous administration of a dopamine agonist on motor response complications attending levodopa therapy were studied in 7 patients with advanced Parkinson's disease under controlled conditions. After a 3-month round-the-clock infusion of lisuride, the duration of antiparkinsonian action of levodopa increased by approximately 90%, and the therapeutic window for the acutely administered dopamine precursor widened by > 300%. These benefits were more than three times greater than those produced by 9 days of continuous levodopa administration.

Partial dopamine agonist therapy of levodopa-induced dyskinesias.

We administered the partial dopamine agonist terguride under controlled conditions to patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), both as monotherapy and in conjunction with intravenous levodopa. Terguride produced a dose-dependent decrease in levodopa-induced dyskinesias (up to 53%) in seven patients without concomitant worsening of parkinsonism, and had no significant antiparkinsonian effect when administered alone. Partial dopamine agonists may hold some promise in the adjuvant therapy of patients with advanced PD.

Deprenyl effects on levodopa pharmacodynamics, mood, and free radical scavenging.

Clinical evidence suggests that deprenyl may slow progression of Parkinson's disease, although mechanisms underlying this putative neuroprotective action remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we studied deprenyl in 12 parkinsonian patients using a single-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design. After 1 month, deprenyl (10 mg/d) decreased the optimal levodopa requirement by 24% (oral) and 16% (intravenous).

Growth hormone secretion in Alzheimer's disease: 24-hour profile of basal levels and response to stimulation and suppression studies.

The 24-h growth hormone secretory pattern and GH response to growth hormone releasing hormone, the alpha 2-adrenoceptor agonist clonidine and the somatostatin-analogue SMS 201-995 were evaluated in 9 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 9 age- and body body-matched control subjects. The secretory profile did not differentiate between patients and controls. Both secreted the largest amount of GH during the early nighthours between 22.

[Changes in the nigrostriatal dopamine receptor compartment after continuous dopaminergic infusions in Parkinson disease].

Motor fluctuations often complicate chronic levodopa treatment of Parkinson's disease. Pharmacologically, these phenomena are characterized by a progressive shortening of the duration of action of levodopa and a gradual narrowing of the range of "optimally effective" doses, able to improve parkinsonian akinesia without inducing abnormal involuntary movements. The effects of a continuous intravenous infusion of levodopa lasting 9 +/- 0.

Somatostatin replacement therapy for Alzheimer dementia.

Somatostatin is consistently diminished in brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. To evaluate whether pharmacological restoration of this transmitter deficit has therapeutic value, the synthetic analogue octreotide was administered intravenously to 14 Alzheimer patients under double-blind, placebo-controlled conditions. At the highest dose administered, spinal fluid concentrations approximated those found in brains of experimental animals receiving behaviorally effective amounts of the drug.

Antagonist effect of terguride in Parkinson's disease.

The effects of the partial dopamine agonist terguride (9,10 transdihydrolisuride; THDL) on striatal dopamine receptors were studied by its i.v. administration to 13 patients with Parkinson's disease.

Opioid peptides in Parkinson's disease: effects of dopamine repletion.

Neurotransmitters other than dopamine, including neuropeptides, could have important pathophysiologic and therapeutic roles in Parkinson's disease. Both Met-enkephalin, the main transmitter of the striatopallidal pathway, and dynorphin, one of the co-transmitters of the striatonigral pathway display complex anatomic and biochemical interactions with the basal ganglionic dopamine system. In this study, the cerebrospinal fluid content of a proenkephalin derivative, Met5 enkephalin-Arg6-Gly7-Leu8 (MERGL), was found in significantly low concentrations in parkinsonian patients following overnight withdrawal of all medications compared with control subjects, and failed to change after at least 16 h of steady-state, optimal doses of levodopa infusion intravenously.

Acute effects of pulsatile levodopa administration on central dopamine pharmacodynamics.

Inconsistencies in the response to individual levodopa doses occur in most patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). To investigate the possible development of acute tachyphylaxis, we evaluated the effects of repeated injections of intravenous levodopa in 10 PD patients with motor fluctuations by administering, during a single day, a previously determined optimal levodopa dose repeatedly each time motor function returned to baseline. Peak antiparkinsonian response was lower by 20%, and peak plasma levodopa levels lower by 35% following the first dose compared with all subsequent doses.

Comparison of the clinical pharmacology of (-)NPA and levodopa in Parkinson's disease.

Direct acting dopamine agonists are generally less effective than levodopa in relieving symptoms of Parkinson's disease. In an attempt to quantitate and explain this situation, the acute motor responses to intravenous injections of the dopamine agonist, (-)-N-n-propyl-norapomorphine hydrochloride (NPA), were compared with those of the dopamine precursor, levodopa. At optimum dose levels, the acute anti-Parkinsonian efficacy of NPA averaged only about 50% of maximum, while essentially total symptom suppression was obtained with levodopa in patients previously treated with the amine precursor.

Modification of central dopaminergic mechanisms by continuous levodopa therapy for advanced Parkinson's disease.

The management of fluctuations in motor function complicating advanced Parkinson's disease with continuously administered dopaminomimetics was studied in 12 patients. In response to 7 to 12 days of round-the-clock intravenous infusions of levodopa, fluctuations in motor performance gradually diminished, ultimately by more than 40%. The beneficial effect persisted for about 6 days after withdrawal of continuous parenteral treatment and resumption of standard oral therapy.